Hip Hop Junkies was a series of sampler mixtapes that I made for my friends… but mostly for myself. This was the type of Rap music that I was really feelin’ back in the mid 1990’s and all the way through to the mid 2000’s. In Japan, they called this stuff “Jazzy Hip Hop”, “Jazz Hop”, etc.

These were not complex, tracked mixes. These were simple mixes, one-take per side, recorded live. The focus was on the music, and not on the technical aspects. I wanted to show how global this music had actually become, and how good the quality of this stuff was becoming. These tapes included local acts from Detroit and Chicago, as well as groups from Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Tokyo, London, Copenhagen, etc.

November 2000 was the second “Hip Hop Junkies” mixtape. More Jazzy Rap stuff and I’m still puttin’ those read-along books/records from my childhood to use! Good stuff, Maynard!

Also, check out my man Amadeus rapping on the Black Lagoon song “One”. Dr. Soos produced a killer track with that one! I had the luxury of working with Amadeus and he recorded a couple of songs for me back in 1996-1997. You can listen to them in my “Underground Hip Hop 1996 Volume 3” post!

You can check out my other Hip Hop Junkies samplers here, here, and here.

kevin…. I was planning a reunion of the bboy/dj’s/poppers/etc that used to get down at the GI Forum in southwest Detroit back in the day. It’s been over 10 years since those jams happened and I want to do it again… but with the original cats that were there….. email me…